Micro-power converters for energy scavenging from multiple radio-frequency and piezoelectric sources

This paper presents recent research results obtained in the field of energy scavenging from multiple vibrational and RF sources. The presented micro-power converter circuit allows to extract with irregular vibrations typical of train passenger cabins at least +41% more power with respect to passive interfaces at the expense of an intrinsic power consumption as low as 5.5uW/source. A multi-band rectenna system for GSM900, GSM1800 and Wi-Fi bands was also developed by means of an integrated design flow. A prototype of the rectenna with an actively controlled power converter showed to harvest tens of uW with an extra power consumption of 6.8uW. In both cases measurements were taken in realistic operating conditions, with typical irregular environmental sources.